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Questions about free Oracle personal home version [message #270325]

Wed, 26 September 2007 09:55

duanecwilson
Messages: 6
Registered: September 2007
Location: Greenville, SC

Junior Member

I am considereing downloading the personal edition of Oracle for home use (mostly just learning Oracle) but I have some questions and concerns. Maybe someone could answer some of them.
1) Will it take up a lot of resources and bog down my computer? I have XP Pro with 512M Memory and plenty of disk space with a 1.8 Ghz AMD processor.
2) Is it just one download?
3) What do you actually get with that download? Do you just get the database? Or do you get SQL*Plus? Do you get Oracle Forms?
4) Is it fairly easy to set up and configure?
5) Does it have all the features of the enterprise version except on a smaller basis - Packages, Stored Procedures, Triggers, Functions, Synonyms, etc?
6) Is there any other concerns or comments that I should be aware of?

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Re: Questions about free Oracle personal home version [message #270331 is a reply to message #270325]

Wed, 26 September 2007 10:12

Michel Cadot
Messages: 68645
Registered: March 2007
Location: Nanterre, France, http://...

Senior Member
Account Moderator

Quote:

Is there any other concerns or comments that I should be aware of?

Like posting in the appropriate forum or reading the download/documentation pages of OTN? Twisted Evil

Regards
Michel

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Re: Questions about free Oracle personal home version [message #270337 is a reply to message #270325]

Wed, 26 September 2007 10:17

Soumen Kamilya
Messages: 128
Registered: August 2007
Location: Kolkata

Senior Member

The most easiest way to do it by downloading Oracle Database 10g Express Edition.
It is free to use & deploy.
1. It runs on 256MB RAM (minimum requirment).
2. Yes, it's a exe file of size around 250MB for universal installer.
3. With this download you will get oracle database 10g, Application Express. Forms you have to download independently.
4. Just run the setup file it will automatically configured all those things, you don't have to bother for that.
5. No, as per my knowledge it is not supported JAVA Class but it has all the basic functionality of Oracle.
6. For small,test purpose jobs it is always preferred to use Oracle 10g Express Edition.

Cheers
Soumen

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Re: Questions about free Oracle personal home version [message #270356 is a reply to message #270337]

Wed, 26 September 2007 11:07

duanecwilson
Messages: 6
Registered: September 2007
Location: Greenville, SC

Junior Member

Thank you. This at least gets me started. I still don't know where SQL*Plus comes into play, whethere I can use it on this or even get it. Also, if anyone has any personal experience with it, I want an idea if it is going to gobble up my memory and resources, even if I am not using it.

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Re: Questions about free Oracle personal home version [message #270360 is a reply to message #270325]

Wed, 26 September 2007 11:25

BlackSwan
Messages: 26766
Registered: January 2009
Location: SoCal

Senior Member

SQL*Plus is an "Oracle client" which means it can be used to provide interaction between you & the Oracle database.
It is just like any other piece of application s/w.
Other than disk space, application s/w only consumes resources after it is invoked.

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Re: Questions about free Oracle personal home version [message #270364 is a reply to message #270360]

Wed, 26 September 2007 11:35

duanecwilson
Messages: 6
Registered: September 2007
Location: Greenville, SC

Junior Member

What about the database itself? Will it constantly consume a large amount of resources as a service running? At one time, I had SQL Server installed and my system slowed down to a crawl. Now, I am not saying it was SQL Server that caused it, as I was having many problems with my system at the time. But, I just re-installed Windows and my system is running nicely. I just don't want to wreck it installing a database if that is what is likely to happen.

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Re: Questions about free Oracle personal home version [message #270366 is a reply to message #270325]

Wed, 26 September 2007 11:46

BlackSwan
Messages: 26766
Registered: January 2009
Location: SoCal

Senior Member

>What about the database itself? Will it constantly consume a large amount of resources as a service running?

No body can answer your question because the answer depends upon exactly how Oracle is configured, the resources available on YOUR system, & what other s/w is active on your system.

The bottom line is that Oracle won't present you any problems if it is shutdown.

If system response degenerates when Oracle is running,
then IMO, Oracle is mis-configured for your system.
Oracle is just like any other guest application on the OS.
It will use as much or as little system resources as it is configured to do.
An idle piece of s/w should be swapped out by the OS if/when it is NOT actively used.
HOWEVER, Oracle has around 10 background processes which tend to stay somewhat active regardless of client connections to the DB.

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Re: Questions about free Oracle personal home version [message #270368 is a reply to message #270364]

Wed, 26 September 2007 12:16

Frank
Messages: 7901
Registered: March 2000

Senior Member

Installing Oracle will certainly not "wreck" your system.
I expect it not to run really smoothly, especially if you plan to cram Forms as well into your 512 MB. (Which is kinda on the low side).

If Oracle does not live up to your expectations, you can quite easily remove it from your freshly installed system.
Oh, and sqlplus is included in XE

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Re: Questions about free Oracle personal home version [message #270371 is a reply to message #270325]

Wed, 26 September 2007 12:49

BlackSwan
Messages: 26766
Registered: January 2009
Location: SoCal

Senior Member

I can say with 100% certainty that if Oracle is configured to use more RAM than what physically exists on your system, then response time for any & all operations will be HORRIBLE!

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Re: Questions about free Oracle personal home version [message #270380 is a reply to message #270366]

Wed, 26 September 2007 13:05

duanecwilson
Messages: 6
Registered: September 2007
Location: Greenville, SC

Junior Member

Just to make this clear in case I have any problems. If I shut down Oracle, will all the background processes also go away, or will some of them run all the time? And if they do stop completely, is it easy to shut down Oracle completely?

I guess I just want to know if, shut off, if it will consume any resources. I have plenty of disk space for it and I don't mind it taking a lot of resources when I start it. I just want to make sure I can stop all the processes completely and fairly easily. For example, when I start up Microsoft Word, it takes a share of resources. When I exit it, the process and resource consumption go away. That's what I want to know about Oracle.

Thanks for everyone's input. I am sure I am not the first person who has ever wondered about this, and I am quite sure I won't be the last.

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Re: Questions about free Oracle personal home version [message #270383 is a reply to message #270325]

Wed, 26 September 2007 13:24

BlackSwan
Messages: 26766
Registered: January 2009
Location: SoCal

Senior Member

Shutting down Oracle will terminate all background processes under normal conditions.

My 1 bit of advice is to make sure that Oracle does NOT start by default when the system boots.

If this is the case, the a simple power cycle of the system will take Oracle out of the picture.

[Updated on: Wed, 26 September 2007 13:24] by Moderator

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Re: Questions about free Oracle personal home version [message #270399 is a reply to message #270383]

Wed, 26 September 2007 15:03

duanecwilson
Messages: 6
Registered: September 2007
Location: Greenville, SC

Junior Member

Thank you for all the replies. All this will help.

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Re: Questions about free Oracle personal home version [message #270423 is a reply to message #270399]

Wed, 26 September 2007 19:14

djmartin
Messages: 10181
Registered: March 2005
Location: Surges Bay TAS Australia

Senior Member
Account Moderator

Actually, when you shut down Oracle XE there is one process left in the active list but it uses very little memory and I have never seen it use any CPU cycles.

I have 512 Meg on my PC at work and have LOTS of stuff running on it. When XE starts it takes some time (20-30 secs) and when I run a large query the first time I go and make a cup of coffee (but bring it back to my desk to drink it), but from then on it is nearly as fast as one of our main servers.

David

PS Obviously, your don't run a virus scan, compress directories into a ZIP file, or convert videos and burn a DVD at maximum speed while running serious queries.

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